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Month of the Immaculate Conception

You
are all beautiful, O Mary, and there is in you no stain of
original sin.

Highlights

Prayer of the Month

Prayer to Mary

O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin didst make ready a fitting habitation for Thy Son, we beseech Thee that Thou who didst keep her clean from all stain by the precious death of the same Son, foreseen by Thee, may grant unto us in like manner to be made clean through her intercession and so attain unto Thee. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen

All
generations shall call me blessed; because He who is powerful
hath done great things to me.

The month of December (Overview - Calendar) is dedicated to the Immaculate
Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. "From all eternity God
chose with infinite wisdom the woman who would be the Mother of
His divine Son. To prepare for the Word Incarnate a spotless and
holy tabernacle, God created Mary in grace and endowed her from
the moment of her conception with all the perfections suited to
her exalted dignity. St. Thomas teaches that through her intimacy
with Christ, the principle of grace, she possessed beyond all creatures
a fullness of divine life." — Liturgical Meditations,
The Sisters of St. Dominic

This feast invites us to meditate on the virtue
of purity. "Mary alone — 'our tainted nature's solitary
boast'— never saw her soul's purity darkened with the dust
of any stain, nor did she see in any part of her triumphal course
toward heaven any sin or trace of worldliness. By a unique and singular
privilege from God she was preserved from original sin from the
first moment of her Immaculate Conception; by another privilege
derived from the first, the Lord did not permit her ever to be stained
even with those unavoidable failings of human weakness." —
Luis M. Martinez

History of the Dogma

Credit must be given to the Oriental Church for having been the first to
institute the feast of Mary's Conception. St. Andrew of Crete (660-740),
in his canon In conceptionem Sanctae ac Dei aviae Annae,
provides us with the first historical document bearing testimony
to the existence of the present feast. It was only many years later
that the West accepted it, and not without strong opposition. The
very first testimony to the existence of the feast in the West is
had from a celebrated marble kalendarium found in Naples dating
as far back as the ninth century. It is England, in fact, that first
introduced this Marian feast into the Latin liturgy.

In a precious document, Leofric's kalendarium
(eleventh century), in which is found the present feast, the collect
states: "Deus qui beatae Mariae Virginis conceptionem angelico
vaticinio parentibus praedixisti." We note from this that in
England, as in the Orient, traces remained of the Protoevangelium
narrative establishing a parallel between Mary's Conception and
that of St. John the Baptist. Judging also from other kalendaria
of that same period wherein no mention is made of this feast, it
would seem that at the outset this feast was limited to Winchester,
Worcester, Exeter, Canterbury, and the surrounding localities.

Shortly thereafter it passed into Normandy and the
northern part of France. But, "in general, the introduction
of this feast and the enthusiasm for its purport seem to have been
lacking in theological guidance. Childlike piety, incited by accounts
of miracles and revelations, had the upper hand. In favor of the
doctrine and the feast these miracles were advanced together with
the appreciation of its eminent appropriateness, but positive theological
reasons were not stressed. Further, a clear exposition of the idea
of the feast was also lacking."

In the closing years of the twelfth century it had
penetrated into many regions of Germany and Belgium, and also into
Navarre, in Spain. In summing it up, Roschini states that, notwithstanding
strong opposition on the part of such great men as St. Bernard and
St. Thomas, it may be safely said that in the middle of the fourteenth
century the feast of Mary's Conception, in the sense of a preservation
from original sin, had found its way into every single diocese of
the world and in every monastery of some importance, with the exception
of Cistercian and Dominican monasteries.

The attitude adopted by the Roman Pontiffs during
the many years of controversy about the doctrine of the Immaculate
Conception, to which was intimately linked, in the West, the very
existence of the feast itself, may best be described as that of
tolerance first, of assent next, and finally of approbation. In
1477 Sixtus IV approved the Mass and Office and four years later
gave his approval to another office for Mary's feast. He also issued
a papal bull, Grave nimis, forbidding censure of those who believed
in the Immaculate Conception because of the attacks of the opposition.
Years later, Alexander VII declared in his famous bull Sollicitudo
omnium ecclesiarum (1661) : "The devotion to the Blessed
Virgin Mary is of long standing among the faithful followers of
Christ who feel that her soul, from the very first instant of its
creation and infusion into her body, was preserved immune from the
stain of original sin by a special grace and privilege of God, through
the merits of her Son Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the human race,
and who in this sense esteem and solemnly celebrate the festivity
of her conception."

In 1693, Innocent XII proclaimed that the octave
of the feast of Mary's Conception be universally celebrated, elevating
it at the same time to the rank of double of second class. Pius
IX in 1863 (having defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception
in 1854) promulgated a new Mass and Office. — Excerpted from
Mariology by Juniper B. Carol, O.F.M.

Novena of the Immaculate Conception

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which is profoundly influential
among the faithful, is an occasion for many displays of popular
piety and especially for the novena of the Immaculate Conception.
There can be no doubt that the feast of the pure and sinless Conception
of the Virgin Mary, which is a fundamental preparation for the Lord's
coming into the world, harmonizes perfectly with many of the salient
themes of Advent. This feast also makes reference to the long messianic
waiting for the Saviour's birth and recalls events and prophecies
from the Old Testament, which are also used in the Liturgy of Advent.

The novena of the Immaculate Conception, wherever
it is celebrated, should highlight the prophetical texts which begin
with Genesis 3, 15, and end in Gabriel's salutation of the one who
is "full of grace" (Lk 1, 31-33) —
Directory on Popular Piety and the Liturgy

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